In 1996 clear fell logging commenced in surrounding rainforests and continues today. The Boomajaril residents who are from Western Australia purchased the Boomajaril property in 1992 and retired there in 1998 after seven years of renovating the property from a bush shack to a comfortable two bedroom house. In the renovations they converted a wall into an atrium window with a verandah so they could bring the beauty of the Rainforest inside. Little did they know at the time how that window and verandah would become the focus of everyday living.

In 2001, they were forced to move back to the West for business for a year and a half. When they returned in 2003 they were devastated to find that almost all the surrounding rainforest to their property had been totally cleared and new Nitan Gum trees had replaced the native Myrtle, sassafras trees and massive Man Ferns. 1080 poison laced carrots had been laid to kill off Wallabies and Possums to stop them grazing on the newly planted gum trees. Once we would have to clear a path through the plague of Wallabies on the road and on our property at night. Now we were lucky to see one. It was at this time that something quite extraordinary happened.

Tasmanian Devils have always been around the Boomajaril Property, hearing their cries from the forest, but you would never see them. When we were on holidays at the property in 1996, we found that a devil had made it's den under the house. We would walk into the bathroom to clean our teeth and were greeted with growls from under the floor boards. Not knowing much about the devil and having heard the normal stories that they were vicious, we were not sure how to take this growl and were not sure at this stage if they would bite. Even my mother who was raised in Tasmania had never seen a devil in the wild. Every so often we would see this devil outside through the massive atruim window in the living room. We would get so excited that we had actually seen a devil in the wild and we were fascinated. She was a mangy looking devil and she was immediately christened Scruffy.

Scruffy gave us our first glimpse at this rare and fascinating animal, and over the next few years we would see the odd devil come up on the verandah. We were however not prepared for what the future had in store for us.

In Spring 2003 after a major poisoning campaign of Possums and Wallabies. Boomajaril became a ghost forest, The plague of wallabies on the front lawn had gone and seeing a wallaby on the road was a rare sight. The wallabies had disappeared and then suddenly in came the Tasmanian Devils.

These Animals, which were hardly ever seen and we always hoped to get a glimpse of, started coming up on the front verandah of the property, drawn by the smells of food cooking. They were coming during the day starving and desperate for food. At first they would run away from us when we would move or approach the door. However hunger over took fear I guess because that changed very quickly.

One young devil would follow my mother around the property during the day while she was gardening. This devil was young and very skinny. It would sit at a distance and watch and then when my mother moved to another location it would follow.

This broke my mothers heart and she had to feed it. The plague of hungry devils and quolls continued to storm the verandah and we continued to feed them, giving them only enough to survive so they would not become dependant on the food. It started as a heartbreaking experience and then it all turned magic.

The devils began to interact with us, a trust had built between both the residents and the devils. From these first devils we learned so much, particularly that they were quite sensitive creatures. The devils visited us at all times of the day. Some would sleep sunning themselves on the verandah. They felt safe and secure.

They then became so confident that they would actually knock on the door and bark for your attention. The personalities differed tremendously. This relationship with devils which is now several devil generations on, continues today. Only now is the wallaby and possum populations stabilising again, however we know that the Devils will still drop in to say hi. I'm sure there is a nature notice board out there somewhere. Because the devils and quolls just know where to go and that they are welcome.

It's a joke in our family that if you ever get lost in the vast rainforest on the property just follow one of the many devil tracks, because all tracks lead to the Boomajaril House.

Story by Debbie Thoy